Nii Psalm Nunoo: “Creatives must take copyright laws seriously.”

Ghana’s creative community is being cautioned by copyright activist Nii Psalm Nunoo to handle copyright matters seriously.

He cited the recent dispute between Kwame Mickey and Team Eternity over the song “Defe Defe” as evidence of the industry’s disrespect for copyright rules.

In an interview with Graphic Showbiz, Nii Psalm Nunoo said that a large portion of creatives in Ghana are either ignorant of or indifferent to copyright rules, which results in a culture of disrespect for the work of peers and widespread intellectual property theft.

Many people in our creative community are resistant to learning. This is particularly clear with our bloggers, who frequently neglect to give proper acknowledgment to the sources or creators.

He claimed that, in contrast to other regions of the world where copyright laws are strictly enforced, the copyright system in Africa is not taken seriously.

He also emphasized the difference between Ghana’s casual approach towards copyright protection and the strict enforcement and respect for copyright rules in Europe and America.

In other regions of the nation, things are not the same. The copyright system is incredibly important. These are not people who take their work seriously.

“Ignorance of the law is not an excuse, thus every creative team has a lawyer or someone knowledgeable about copyright concerns in the management team to help with legal matters.

Nonetheless, you find that in our industry, individuals tend to overlook a lot of things, even copyright violations. Simply said, we’re not taking learning seriously enough. We’re not taking these copyright violations seriously,” he continued.

Nii Psalm Nunoo called for the bolstering of Ghana’s copyright office in order to effectively handle cases involving copyright violations.

He desires greater strength and proficiency in addressing copyright matters for Ghana’s copyright office.

According to him, the creative sector needs to adopt a new perspective that values knowing about copyright regulations, safeguarding artists’ creations, and instilling in employees a practice of respecting others’ intellectual property.

“To effectively handle copyright infringement cases, the copyright office needs to be well-equipped. Without this, there will be no legal accountability for the widespread intellectual property theft that plagues the creative business, he stated.